Birth in the bowling alley

Things got kind of crazy before our sweet new baby was born.  I induced some of the craziness by adding too many things to my to-do list and then having mild panic attacks when I would think about all the things I needed/wanted to get done.  One fun thing I was able to do was make some decorations for the house.  I wanted to decorate the nursery-- for the first time we have a proper nursery!  Its so exciting.  But its a little complicated to decorate a nursery without knowing the gender of the child (I didn't dare complain, since this was my idea).  So I made some decorations for a boy room and some for a girl room.  I also got  a killer deal on some fabric for boy curtains.  Miguel thought I was totally crazy, since he was convinced we were having a girl.

Here are some of the projects I did.  My mom helped me with the vinyl lettering-- we spent a couple of days on it since we were both learning how to use her new Cricut and software.

I wanted to do some kid-friendly art but buying actual art was too expensive, so I took some color copies out of books and then used scrapbook materials and frames I already had.  The first one I made was so fun I made several more.  The first few pictures are of some I made for the kids' bathroom (the Curious George one hangs over the tub and says "a little dirt never hurt." (to remind the momma)

( ...  "Even longer," said Pooh.  )

The picture below is a copy of one I drew in college for my parents.  This is a hobby I hope to resurrect some day when I have more time.

A quote board by the loo :) -- messages for a captive audience.

 I've always wanted to make a "hero wall."  I hope I can rotate pictures through.

 Miguel painted the beadboard and finished the woodwork in the front room, and it looked so good I bought a bunch of paint and roped him into painting our kitchen and dining room too.

He also put glass in our kitchen cabinets and some other cabinets that were supposed to have glass but had never been finished.  All this has finally made this house feel like home!  Its been so exciting.

I was also able to take the older kids each on a date before baby's birth.  I don't know why I waited to think of this until I was nearly eight months pregnant.  Isa went first, I let her choose her activity.  She chose swimming.  So I had to squeeze into my suit (not pretty) and couldn't wear my tights, so  I got some good stares at the pool.  I think one of the side effects of my veins has been poor temperature regulation-- I get really cold.  I was so cold and miserable, but she was having so much fun I tried to put on a happy face.  At one point she wanted to go into a shallow area and play on a water playset thingy.  I tried to stay down in the water so I wouldn't get so cold but my belly kept bumping the bottom.  I  felt badly that I wasn't playing with her, so after a few minutes I started army crawling throught the shallow water toward the playset.  A group of 9 year-old boys must have thought I looked like a good target, because they started blasting a steady stream of water at me from the top of the playset with the built-in water guns.  They didn't let up, either.  Finally I got UNDER the playset, but as soon as I started out the other side with Isa they began shooting me again.  Fun.  Isa was so giggly and cute and didn't let on if she knew I was miserable, but I swore to myself I was taking swimming off the acceptable date activity list for the other kids.

Kaedon and I just happened to be alone one afternoon since my girls went to play at their cousin's house, so we had an impromptu date.  I had learned my lesson with the swimming, so I gave him what I thought were some safe options.  We went to Boondocks and he chose bowling, which I thought sounded great.  Then I threw my first ball and thought I was going to have the baby right there in the bowling alley.  I forgot how loose my joints get and that bowling ball did a number on my pelvis.  Kaedon started out with something like three strikes in a row.  I told him he was lucky not to have my genes-- I am terrible at bowling.  I told him that on my mission we went bowling as a district and all the elders were amazed (as was I) when I bowled three strikes in a row, then I proceeded to bowl a whole bunch of gutter balls in a row.  Oh well.  Poor Kaedon, I shouldn't have told him that story just then because he and I bowled a bunch of gutter balls after that.  It was kind of anti-climatic.  I learned how to contort my body so it didn't hurt so bad, but it definitely didn't help my already terrible bowling skills.  So I took bowling off the acceptable date activities for Maia.  That night in his prayers, Kaedon said thanks for the dessert he had that day and for being able to play "Poptropica" on the computer.  No mention of our stellar date.  So much for sacrificing my body for my children's enjoyment.

I took Maia to Chuck-E-Chesse's.  She has had so little one on one time the last two years she was like a deer in the headlights.  I thought she would go crazy running from one thing to another, but she just stood there looking around, as if she didn't know what to do.  I had to make suggestions.  She was so cute.  We tried Skee-ball and that was a big mistake.  The balls she threw were landing on nearby Skee-ball lanes and not in our own-- with a loud bang.  When she wanted to try a hoops/basketball game I thought it would be similarly disastrous, but it wasn't.  She kept swishing the ball over and over, like a little Jimmer.  Who knew my little 5 year old princess daughter had such a skill.  It was quite cute.  No babies born in Chuck-E-Cheese-- hallelujah.

This is turning out to be the longest post ever.   I'm sorry.  I know this sounds like I spent a bunch of time with my kids at the end of my pregnancy, but its not true.  I was so busy trying to get things done, then we had a little mini-disaster that kept us busy until I delivered.  With more rain here that we've had in 50 years, we grew a lake in our basement.  It flooded one room that is lower than the rest.  Then, with one week till my due date, I told Miguel I would just die if the rest of the basement flooded.  The next morning it did.  We spent the wee hours of the morning hauling stuff out onto the driveway.  We called all our family at 5am to ask for help and they all thought we were calling to say we had the baby.  They came and spent a whole day helping us dry things out, move things, etc.  For a few nights after this I was in tons of pain and thought the baby might come early.  I was just so glad I had that extra week to get our little disaster cleaned up and didn't have to bring a baby home to a huge mess.